After about 3 weeks of on off troubleshooting and internet searches... i suppose im ready for a bit of insight-

I've been working on a project involving an arduino controlled LED cube, and i got a custom PCB manufactured so that all the components could be integrated into one neat package. This included my lovely ATmega328P-AU which i need to bootload...

I've tried to bootload with both an AVR pocket programmer and an arduino uno acting as ISP.

starting with the pocket programmer, i get the following error message

avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA328P is 1E 95 0F Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.

I could be wrong, but from what I've read this is saying that the device signature it reads is not the one it is trying to write to (0x1E 0x95 0x0F for the ATMega328P). I verified that this was the correct signature in the arduino avrdude config files and the atmel datasheet (pg 302 for those interested) and confirmed that my chips do in fact have the ATmega328P - AU markings on them.

which seems to suggest some sort of incompatibility between the version of AVRDude and the arduino environment OR the same problem as the last one, the wrong device signature (ie 328P-AU vs 328-AU)

Since all of this seemed to be going the same place, i tried to change the device signature to the regular 328 signature (0x1E 0x95 0x14) but still had no luck.

I've also assembled a second circuit board from my 3 that I got from dorkbot with the same issues...I've done most of the obvious troubleshooting steps, Ive checked and rechecked all solder joints on both boards, I've tested continuity throughout both boards all the way through to the respective lines on the programmer, and the eagle file I made the design from was modified from the original arduino pro mini 5V version, and I don't think I could have changed anything critical, I mostly just added on things and redesigned the board layout.

So... could I have gotten two bricks/killed both during assembly?Could my layout be ruining the ISP connection somehow (high capacitance or something??, I can post eagle files)Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help,John

Edit:btw, im running at 5V and 16MHz on both the uno and the new board

Turn on verbose upload messages in preferences. That will allow you to see the signature being received that did not match the expected signature. If it's 00 00 00 or FF FF FF you probably have a bad connection.

Does your custom board work if you take the chip from the UNO and put it in your board?

well i've been playing around with it a bit more, and I got so far as to get it to say that it was successfully connecting to an AVR, so maybe the chips are not dead and the circuit is messed up somehow